It is well known to equip motor vehicles with seats known as bucket seats or captain chairs that seat just one person. The use of bucket seats is especially desirable in mini-vans and sport utility vehicles. For example, in mini-vans a pair of bucket seats may be used as the second row of seating so that a space remains between the right and left bucket seats. The vehicle users can access a third row of seating that is located behind the second row of seating by reaching between the right and left bucket seats, or by walking between the right and left bucket seats.
It is also known to be desirable to have a pivoting armrest attached to one or both sides of a seat back. Such armrests are typically pivotally mounted on the lateral edge of the seat back and pivot between an upstanding vertical stored position that allows the user to get in and out of the seat, and a horizontal armrest forming position in which the user may rest an arm upon the armrest. The disadvantage of mounting an armrest on the lateral edge of a seat back is that the presence of the armrest will somewhat obstruct the possibility of the vehicle user walking or reaching between the two second row seats in order to access the third row of seating.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a new and improved armrest arrangement in which the armrest could be stored within a recessed cavity in the lateral edge of the seat back, and then selectively deployed to an armrest forming position.